


A Monster Calls

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Read My Lips [23]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-28 00:22:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6306304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: <i>Stargate: Atlantis, any, A Monster Calls.</i> Tag to Common Ground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Monster Calls

John came awake when the overhead lights flickered on and off. He groaned and stirred, pushed himself up.  
  
"What?" he signed, not bothering to use his mouth.  
  
Evan stood in the doorway. "You're needed in control right away."  
  
"Couldn't you have just called on the radio?" John's bedside radio was actually a smartphone rigged to Atlantis's equivalent of very weak wifi that accepted and sent text messages. When he looked at it, he saw that it was blinking messages. _Sheppard to control. ASAP._  
  
John blinked some more. "Where's Rodney?" He remembered crawling into bed beside Rodney hours ago. But Rodney's side of the bed was cold.  
  
"Hurry," Evan said, hands flying, and John struggled to his feet, pulled on pants and a t-shirt. When he reached for his shoes, Evan stomped his foot, shook his head, so John staggered after him into the hallway. He'd always been envious of Evan's ability to come awake and come to attention in an instant.  
  
"What's the problem?" John asked.  
  
Evan dragged him to the transporter, and he wasn't one to get handsy with John, unlike other hearing people who seemed to think deafness equated total helplessness, so whatever it was, it was urgent.  
  
They emerged in the control tower where everyone was gathered – Elizabeth, Teldy, Rodney, Radek. They were all standing behind Chuck, staring at his console.  
  
When they saw John, they made way for him. John allowed himself to be shuffled into place, and he studied the screen, waking his mind up to do some emergency math.  
  
The Wraith was on the screen. The one who'd fed on him so they could escape that cell together.  
  
Todd, John had named the Wraith. It was a simple, quick name-sign, one of the first he'd learned.  
  
"He won't talk to us," Evan was saying for Elizabeth. "Only to you."  
  
John was confused. "Why me?" He looked at the screen, signed, "What do you want?"  
  
He sensed the people around him flinch collectively when Todd signed back. Todd had learned to sign, because he could read John's mind when John let him. It was the only way they'd been able to communicate. Todd had learned uncannily quickly.  
  
"Hello, Guide." Todd refused to use John's working name-sign and instead used one of his own, which amounted to "sure-footed". "I have news of a common enemy."  
  
"What news?" John asked. "Why speak only to me?" He was sure Evan was interpreting for the others, but he didn't dare look away, couldn't miss a word.  
  
"The Asurans," Todd said, "have been wiping out human settlements to deprive My Kind of food."  
  
John felt the air around him go cold with tension.  
  
"Thank you for telling us," John said. "We are working on a method to combat the human-form Replicators –"  
  
"Let me propose an alliance." Todd's sharp-toothed grin was unsettling.  
  
But John nodded and said, "You have my attention."  
  
When the conversation ended with Elizabeth promising to think about it, Rodney yanked John into his arms and hugged him for dear life. Then he pulled back and shook John a little.  
  
"You taught the Wraith ASL? Are you insane?"  
  
"It was the only way to survive," John said, expression flat and unimpressed.  
  
"Why would he only speak to you?" Elizabeth asked.  
  
"He trusted me," John said.  
  
Rodney curled a hand against John's chest, at the spot where Wraith liked to feed. Elizabeth pressed her lips into a thin line.  
  
"Right. Well, John, thank you for your assistance. Rodney, you're excused if you like."  
  
Rodney nodded. "We're going back to bed," he said firmly, and John allowed Rodney to tow him back to their quarters.  
  
When they fell into bed together, Rodney curled up on his side, put an arm around John tightly, and kissed the back of his neck over and over again. John closed his eyes and tried to fall back to sleep against the flashbacks of Todd feeding on him, of the terror of never seeing Rodney again.  
  
When he woke the next morning, it was to gentle sunlight and calm, perfect knowledge that he was safe, and that he wasn't alone.


End file.
